Diving after a heart attack

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@Duke Dive Medicine and @Mr Bill, I feel like I sending condolences to someone who's lost a loved one. Sorry for your loss. I started reading this thread looking for a happy ending for the OP. Question: Does reading/writing about diving help fill the void or does it make it worse? I ask as each of us in our turn will have to hang up our fins.

Couv

Well, I wasn't expecting so many life style changes to happen so abruptly or suddenly. Diving is just one of the many activities that I enjoyed that are off limits now. The heart attack caused my early retirement from my primary occupation, which is an enormous bummer.

Recently, we went on a trip to Loreto Mexico. I didn't get to dive but I was able to snorkel and fish. It was a blast but I'm certain that the diving would have been even more so. My fiends that went diving reported super clear visibility and abundant sea life. The thing talked about the most were the sea lions swimming with the divers.

Snorkeling in this area was very cool. There are schools of bait fish near the shorelines that can be spotted from a panga. I managed to snorkel with the bait fish and these bait fish immediately begin to circle you. Once out of the bait ball there are all of the different varieties of colorful tropical fish to view. Turtles are small in this area because they were not protected until recently. One snorkel trip we saw spotted reys and jelly fish. We ended up swimming through a swarm of pika pika and ended up with the rashes on unprotected areas. They looked like blue glitter, very cool to see.

The same panga took us fishing and we caught dorado and red snapper. Enough fish for our group of 12 to last the week. We went fishing again and targeted dorado, only for a few hours, and managed about 30 pounds of clean fillets. I really like dinning on dorado.

Next trip is Maui. Oddly we had dive excursions planed for this trip. Now I plan to snorkel with the honu. Hopefully no pololia or pika pika.

When the day comes that you have to make some life style changes, because of what ever the reason, it is good to have a best friend. Mine is my wife, who made every effort to help me through this and still does.

Bill
 
@Duke Dive Medicine and @Mr Bill, I feel like I sending condolences to someone who's lost a loved one. Sorry for your loss. I started reading this thread looking for a happy ending for the OP. Question: Does reading/writing about diving help fill the void or does it make it worse? I ask as each of us in our turn will have to hang up our fins.

Couv

That's kind of you to say. Honestly, I don't feel the pull to go diving the way I used to. I did it for a living for long enough that it took most of the magic out of it for me. I enjoy helping divers and learning about diving and decompression physiology, and I like writing as well. For recreation, I guess my musical instrument habit has become my new expensive hobby. I have a very understanding wife :)

Best regards,
DDM
 
What do you both think about a lightweight Aquaprop DPV/Scooter as a mobility vehicle for snorkeling (and perhaps using one to aid & go Scuba again):
 
Bill here. So it has been a while.The heart attack was followed later that year with a tumor in my gallbladder, lol. Had the gallbladder removed and never felt so good for years. Getting older sucks !!!

Have been on many a snorkel trip but no scuba. I feel like I could scuba but the cardiologist said the water pressure could cause a problem in the 4 inches of stents they put in my arteries. I didn't realize that the three stents are in a line supporting the right coronary artery.

Anyway, I was thinking I would stop by here and give an update. Things are good !!!

Bill
 
I'm fairly new to this board--and very impressed that someone like Mr. Bill (or me or anyone else) could get such good advice hear, and actually follow it even though it wasn't what he wanted to here, and find out that life is still good. It's refreshingly civilized. Thanks for the update, Mr. Bill--and thanks also to all the knowledgable people who weigh in.
 
Bill here. So it has been a while.The heart attack was followed later that year with a tumor in my gallbladder, lol. Had the gallbladder removed and never felt so good for years. Getting older sucks !!!

Have been on many a snorkel trip but no scuba. I feel like I could scuba but the cardiologist said the water pressure could cause a problem in the 4 inches of stents they put in my arteries. I didn't realize that the three stents are in a line supporting the right coronary artery.

Anyway, I was thinking I would stop by here and give an update. Things are good !!!

Bill

@Dr. Doug Ebersole does this make sense to you?
 
Hey Bill,

Long time, amigo.

As regards your statement, "Have been on many a snorkel trip but no scuba. I feel like I could scuba but the cardiologist said the water pressure could cause a problem in the 4 inches of stents they put in my arteries," you might find this earlier thread worthy of discussion with your cardiologist -->

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/diving-with-a-stent.481075/

DocVikingo
 
The statement "water pressure could cause a problem in the 4 inches of stents they put in my arteries" doesn't make any sense to me. As I have mentioned many times on Scuba Board, each case has to be evaluated individually but the general recommendation would be that it is safe to return to recreational scuba diving if you have good exercise tolerance, normal heart muscle function, and no evidence of a limitation to blood flow (ischemia) on treadmill stress testing. "Good" exercise tolerance is a moving target. Historically, this was defined as reaching 13 METs on exercise treadmill testing. Currently, that has been loosened somewhat to being able to sustain 6.5 METS for around 20 minutes. That would be equivalent to walking 2 miles in 20 minutes or so.
 
Thanks Doug. I couldn't picture how pressure could cause problems with stents but it's nice to have the opinion of someone who does it for a living.
 

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